I watched Shaolin last night. It turned out to be another Chinese propaganda kung-fu film in the line of Ip Man and the like. For a certain section of the film, it forgot that it was such a film and actually ventured close to being about one character's loss and adaptation, but then that all served the endgame where there was a long, drawn out ending that dragged and dragged on just to make the audience feel the right message. The editing really comes apart at the end due to this. My favorite bit is where you have Chinese warlords fighting and killing and being overall detriments to life and society, then you see both the evil warlords redeemed and bunch of whiteys that had only two scenes show up to blow up the shaolin temple for no good reason. It's like they almost got through a film without blaming the Japanese or whites. ALMOST!
The fights were a lot of subdued wire-fights. Nothing much with a realistic, brutal feel. The best fight scenes was the hostage freeing scene, with some nice bo staff action. There is heavy use of staffs in this film and I'm a fan of martial staff use. The way they have the monks slide down the roofs and land softly with the help of their beatsticks is pretty nice. The worst scenes consisted of the daughter's amazing near-survival. I liked Jackie Chan in this film in a limited role, and his scenes with Lau in the kitchen and fields are the best parts of the film.
What is most interesting about the film is that it uses the mighty whitey trope without the racial coding. The exact same plot of hte trope, and the amazing quickness at which the evil warlord masters the shaolin invokes the last samurai, but by removing the racial coding, it shows that this myth being told has a lot more going on than America's own racial hangups allow it to see.
